I'll still take tornados over hurricanes any day

[Matt Giroux]

People from all over the country rush to one another's aid at times like this. Oklahoma already has utility crews and search and rescue crews on site in Louisiana. I will take the tornado over a hurricane simply because the patch of a tornado is generally much smaller than that of a hurricane. Many more lives, homes, businesses, utilities, etc. are generally put at risk in a hurricane.

I think we were typing at the exact same time with the exact same train of thought

 

[Okie4570]

I think his point, at least the way I read it, is that when you had the F5 hit piedmont some years ago, you had a joint response from Oklahoma city, Yukon, Canadian County etc. because while the destructive capabilities are the same it is much more isolated with a tornado. Hurricanes take out entire counties (parishes) Tornados are more localized and therefore the need for emergency response is in a more specified area rather than this entire county with 50+/- townships is completely flooded and the only organized response is coming solely from outside sources like Oklahoma City's emergency task force 1 that is currently in LA because the localized resources are for the most part offline due to the widespread destruction.

Exactly

No different. Shouldn't be any assumption that other places aren't as civilized as we are.

No assumption made other than the assumption you made about what I was thinking. Not sure where the "aren't as civilized" part came from???

People from all over the country rush to one another's aid at times like this. Oklahoma already has utility crews and search and rescue crews on site in Louisiana. I will take the tornado over a hurricane simply because the patch of a tornado is generally much smaller than that of a hurricane. Many more lives, homes, businesses, utilities, etc. are generally put at risk in a hurricane.

Exactly

 

[TerryMiller]

Major Power Line in Mississippi River

 

[AKguy1985]

Prayers go out for all of them. I'm with you - I'll take a tornado any day.


.

Same here

 

[steelfingers]

How about sharknado's? Now that's the ticket.

 

[ttown]

Actually they were saying tornados were being spawned from the hurricane so they getting the full treatment it sounds like. Prayers

 

[xseler]

I think that no matter where you live, there's things that can happen to kill you --- hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, forest fires, mud slides, sink holes, ice storms, heat waves, Democrats --- there's always something!

 

[BillM]

I've lived in hurricane and tornado zones as well as typhoon zones. There is really no difference among them...they're pretty much the same: trailers and power lines get wrecked and everything gets soaked. I don't prefer one over the other because they all suck the same. That equates to "do I prefer getting run over by a steamroller or a caterpillar?"

I've lived in both, too. There is a difference. A big one! A hurricane can spawn dozens to hundreds of tornados. I was in Biloxi, MS. when Hurricane Elena came through, and in Sumter, SC (about 100 miles inland!) when Hurricane Hugo came through. The entire state of South Carolina was pretty well trashed.

I was here in the OKC Metro when the May 3rd 1999 tornado tore through Moore, and on up through Del City & Midwest City. The path for that tornado was about 1 mile wide, and it was exceptionally long for a tornado. Hugo was wide enough to blanket much of SC, and it carried on quite a ways farther than even the May 3rd 99 tornado.

You can dodge a single tornado, if you're lucky, good luck with that on a hurricane unless you leave days before it arrives.

Bill

 

[ICanFixIt]

With a tornado you can probably go 5 miles and find a motel room. With a hurricane, there is not a motel room to be had within 50 miles or more because the motels got damaged too. A lot of the damage during a hurricane is caused by the many tornadoes that it spawns, so you get the worst of both worlds with a hurricane. A few hundred damaged or destroyed homes aren't very good incentive for insurance companies to resist paying what they owe for covered claims. The attitude changes a bit when you start talking about a few hundred thousand claims. And where are you going to find the skilled workers to repair or rebuild all of those homes? Where are those workers going to live? Where are the homeowners going to live while the work is being done? Oh, did I forget to mention that business had the same level of damage as homes? So,,,,, your house got destroyed, and you don't have any place to stay. You also don't have a place to work, because that got put out of business because of the damage it sustained. Two weeks after the hurricane TV news drops hurricane coverage and moves on to something new. The rest of the world assumes the problems caused by the hurricane have been resolved, since they aren't hearing about it on the news. Trust me, years later there are plenty of lingering problems. A tornado is bad, but it is grossly inaccurate to try to compare it to a major hurricane.

 

[Range Plunker]

Some years ago, I managed a Florida city that experienced several hurricanes. We instructed emergency crews to not travel when the wind was 45 mph or above due in part to flying objects. Due to the level terrain in Florida, flooding was the major concern after a hurricane passed. Moreover, because of the level terrain and flooding, wild animals like alligators and snakes freely swam down streets, so emergency crews did not wade in streets--that is, if they could help it. Finally, Florida had very few major highways along the coasts, so it was impossible for all of southern Florida to escape in advance of a storm, and those that did risked being caught on the highway during the storm itself. On the good side, the State increased its building standards to make structures capable of withstanding 140 mph winds, and local governments spent an inordinate amount of time training for hurricanes, which I've found lacking in most other States.